Marcel.lí Antúnez Roca - Mini bio

Marcel.lí Antúnez Roca (Moià, 1959) is well-known in the international art scene for his mechanotronic performances and robotic installations.

In the nineties his avantguard mechatronic performances combined such elements as Bodybots (body-controlled robots), Systematugy (interactive narration with computers) and dresskeleton (the exoskeleton body interface).

The themes explored in his work include: the use of biological materials in robotics, as in Joan l’home de carn (1992); telematic control on the part of a spectator of an alien body in the performance EPIZOO (1994); the expansion of body movements with dresskeletons (exoskeletical interfaces) sed in the performances AFASIA (1998) and POL (2002); involuntary choreography with the bodybot REQUIEM (1999); and microbiological ansformations in the installations RINODIGESTIO (1987) and AGAR (1999). He is currently working on the spatial and utopian artwork TRANSPERMIA

In the early nineties his performance EPIZOO caused a commotion in the international art scene. For the first time a performer’s body movements could be controlled by the audience. By operating a videogame, a spectator interacts with the bodybot worn by Antúnez, moving his buttocks, pectoral muscles, mouth, nose and ears. This performance stresses the ironical, and even cruel, paradox rising from the coexistence between virtual digital iniquity and the performer’s physical vulnerability.

Since the eighties, Antúnez’s work has been based on a continuous observation of how human desires are expressed and in what specific situations they appear. First in the tribal performances ofLa Furadel Baus and later, on his own, he expressed this interest by creating complex, in many cases hybrid, systems hard to classify. Antúnez’ works belong to the fields of both visual and scenic arts.

From the early nineties, the incorporation and transgression of scientific and technological elements in Antúnez’ work, and their interpretation by means of unique and specific devises, have produced a new cosmogony - warm, raw and ironic - of traditional themes such as affection, identity, or death. In his works these elements take on an extremely human dimension that causes a spontaneous reaction in the audience.

Hi was also founding member ofLa Furadels Baus, he worked in this company as art co-ordinator, musician and performer from 1979 to 1989, and presented the group’s macro-performances ACCIONS (1984), SUZ/O/SUZ (1985) and TIER MON (1988).

Antúnez has presented his work in numerous international venues includingLa Fundación Telefónicain Madrid, the P.A.C. in Milan, the Lieu Unique in Nantes, the I.C.A. in London, SOU Kapelica Ljubljana, Cena Contemporanea in Rio de Janeiro, the Barcelona MACBA and the DOM Cultural Center of Moscow. He has performed at the International Festivals EMAF Osnabruc Germany, Muu Media Festival Helsinki, Noveaux Cinema Noveaux

Since 2010, Marcel•lí is workingonwhat he call’sArsenalDella Aparrazione and it’s include the threelatestworks from Antúnez, thefirstcalled Cotrone (2010) is a performance, the second El Peix Sebastiano a medium-length film presented in Sitges film festival and the most recentstagingPseudo (2012) presented in the Grec Festival of Barcelona.

On 2014, Marcel·lí has opened up the exhibition Systematurgy. Actions, Devices and Drawings, on Arts Santa Mònica in Barcelona. It is focused on his method of creation the Systematurgy, a neologism which is literally a Dramaturgy based on computational systems.